DJ SNS talks about leaking Illmatic and making it his mixtape before it was released, MC Serch responds

[Woodrow]

The funny thing is Nas didn’t even dumb down his actual lyrical content OR his flow on It Was Written. IWW has some of the best writing ever seen in Hip Hop and really proves that Nas is an expert song writer when he wants to be. The Message, Watch Them nikkas, Take It In Blood, even Nas Is Coming are expertly written. The bar work across that album is amazing.

agree 100%. and i'm not mad at anyone who believes IWW>>Illmatic. but is he open to working with trackmasters to that degree if the first album sells well (and half of queensbridge didn't jump on "on the real")?

 

[Ziggiy]

agree 100%. and i'm not mad at anyone who believes IWW>>Illmatic. but is he open to working with trackmasters to that degree if the first album sells well (and half of queensbridge didn't jump on "on the real")?

Well he hired Steve Stoute for a reason. I think he was ready to take the next “step” as an artist but also wanted to stay street affiliated and probably thought that going with Marly would be the best of both worlds. Just looking at the success LL had four years previously with Mama Said Knock You Out, it makes sense that Nas would go in that “raw but commercially viable” route.

Of course we all know what happened there and Stoute convinced Nas to give the Trackmasters a go and it worked beautifully.

 

[Stick Up Kid]

Nas should Un him up.

Some beefs are everlasting.

Doubt he cares, he shouted SNS out on KD3

 

[Art Barr]

Nas was Esco in 1995. On The Infamous, on Fast Life, on Mo Money Mo Murda, on OBFCL, etc etc. All before IWW dropped. IWW wasn't really a glossy album. But IWW was gonna be different cause he was STILL gonna have Marley Marl do it. U know who fukked that up? Marley Marl by releasing songs they were working on and having other nikkas rap on them. The Source snubbing him at the Source Awards. Bottom line. "The culture" did Nas dirty and then complained when he manuevered and still was able to be successful.

Stop.

Nas ruined his own draw.

By no showing every performance.
That the bytch in yoo was debuted by common. To cover up nas no showing as a headliner. Where even AZ was there.

Yeah...bootleggers were a real thing. Plus directly responsible for low draws legit since the receipts for one for all by brand nubian.

Yet nas did himself no favors on rhe run during illmatic.

Plus he sold out on the vinyl to one love as a precursor.
That nas was already in rhe sellout bin before iww was released. Iww just cosigned what any original nas fan knew.
since the vinyl rnb remix to one love.

Nas ruined his own draw past the bootleggers. Then souled out even more.
While also being completely complicit with puff.
to ruin any credible draw culturall.
for rap moving forward since then as well. While also redoing and reusing the instrumental.
that ushered out the ol school way of thought before ll.
Plus setting up another fraudulent talent in the after school special Lauren Hill. Outside of the daytime after-school special enabled draw of Lauren hill's. explosion of the fugees. as top draws as well.
Nas literally enabled every sellout mantra in hiphop. Leading up to, during and after illmatic's bootlegger issue.
Plus if bootleggers ruined rhe album like one for all. Then back then culturally nas should have dug in deeper.
like brand nubian minus grand puba.
With punks jump up to get beat down style content. Instead of enablin rnb slash mca way sellout style records. Which were taboo and why rap is low quality. As kane said it himself. When you let rnb jnto rap. You take away rap's draw. By using an rnb artist. As they have a melodic artistic expression.
given higher draw over culturally taboo vocals in rap.

Kane said this and nas still followed the kane wack lane of making records.



Art Barr

 

[Ku$h Parker]

Didnt Clue do the same thing to Ready To Die?I remember hearing Big Fire on breh on a Mixtape Intro,sidenote:IWW & I AM was Nas' Best Stuff

 

[tuckgod]

fukk that Khazar culture vulture

 

[sneakers&sex]

Illmatic did 165,000 first week thats impressive even for then.

 

[Ziggiy]

Stop.

Nas ruined his own draw.

By no showing every performance.
That the bytch in yoo was debuted by common. To cover up nas no showing as a headliner. Where even AZ was there.

Yeah...bootleggers were a real thing. Plus directly responsible for low draws legit since the receipts for one for all by brand nubian.

Yet nas did himself no favors on rhe run during illmatic.

Plus he sold out on the vinyl to one love as a precursor.
That nas was already in rhe sellout bin before iww was released. Iww just cosigned what any original nas fan knew.
since the vinyl rnb remix to one love.

Nas ruined his own draw past the bootleggers. Then souled out even more.
While also being completely complicit with puff.
to ruin any credible draw culturall.
for rap moving forward since then as well. While also redoing and reusing the instrumental.
that ushered out the ol school way of thought before ll.
Plus setting up another fraudulent talent in the after school special Lauren Hill. Outside of the daytime after-school special enabled draw of Lauren hill's. explosion of the fugees. as top draws as well.
Nas literally enabled every sellout mantra in hiphop. Leading up to, during and after illmatic's bootlegger issue.
Plus if bootleggers ruined rhe album like one for all. Then back then culturally nas should have dug in deeper.
like brand nubian minus grand puba.
With punks jump up to get beat down style content. Instead of enablin rnb slash mca way sellout style records. Which were taboo and why rap is low quality. As kane said it himself. When you let rnb jnto rap. You take away rap's draw. By using an rnb artist. As they have a melodic artistic expression.
given higher draw over culturally taboo vocals in rap.

Kane said this and nas still followed the kane wack lane of making records.



Art Barr

Nas has more than paid for his “sins” of becoming a global superstar who through his music was able to take care of his family and many of his QB friends by giving back to those same icons who never got their proper due through the Paid In Full awards. $500k plus free healthcare for life have been gifted to Scarface, Rakim, Shante, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz.

Nas could’ve made 10 more illmatics and never got to the point where he had the influence to pull off the awards.

 

[Art Barr]

Nas has more than paid for his “sins” of becoming a global superstar who through his music was able to take care of his family and many of his QB friends by giving back to those same icons who never got their proper due through the Paid In Full awards. $500k plus free healthcare for life have been gifted to Scarface, Rakim, Shante, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz.

Nas could’ve made 10 more illmatics and never got to the point where he had the influence to pull off the awards.

Stop this jiggy enablin breh.

Ya boi was with puff too nikka.
Sad that nas was affected by bootleggers just like brand nubian. Yet nas never did none of the draw building anything to aid illmatic. Then souled't out.

All that other shyt is excuses and jiggy enablin.


not giving no passes.

it is not happening.

you can act oblivious.
all you want.

I keep it real.






Art Barr

 

[Awesome Wells]

Selective recapping on Serch's part though.

Yeah, there was a lot of bootlegging back then. But the SNS tapes didn't kill Illmatic sales, Columbia did. They were notorious for not wanting to spend on promoting and marketing. They had Nas in broken down vans touring the country with underground groups like Yaggfu Front and The B.U.M.S.. Nas couldn't get them to invest in the album post-production, so the sales died after the hardcore fans went out and copped it.

Q-Tip said Nas told him he couldn't even move out of his mom's crib because Serch and Columbia wouldn't pay him or boost the album. SNS wasn't pushing tapes all over the country. Dude used to have a little dusty shop uptown where he would be selling all kinds of sh*t. That's not gonna hurt Nas's sales like that. Columbia f*cked Illmatic up, and Serch pocketed more than he should've because he didn't do sh*t to really help the album. Same thing he did with O.C.'s Word...Life. The same damn year.

 

[Da_Eggman]

Where was Diddy at the smash some champagne bottles when you need him

 

[TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?]

Now this is what nikkas should be getting sued for,not a bunch of strippers getting pissed on at a Diddy's party decades ago

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

it was actually a blessing in disguise. Had Illmatic went platinum, Nas stays doing that type of music and fizzles out. The fact that it didn't sell a lot forced him to go the route of singing on the hooks with a more mainstream approach and that's why he's still relevant 30 years later. Sometimes failure if the best thing to happen even if your album is great.

 

[Deadman187]

Illmatic only sold 60,000 first week, why is Serch saying it sold 165,000?

 

[IWasntMadeToPlayTheSon]

it's been said multiple times that the commercial failure of that album pushed nas towards a more mainstream, glossier sound. which ultimately led to him dumbing down his approach completely halfway through his career, and the "nas fell off" chants.

if the album isn't bootlegged and sells better as a result, we might not get it was written. but we might also not have gotten nastradamus and some of his more blatantly commercial records.

It was written was worth it then. Good job sns